We are pleased to announce that Wang Qiang’s fifth solo exhi-bi-tion will open at WHITE SPACE (Caochang-di) on Novem-ber 27, 2021, and run through Jan-u-ary 16, 2022. This exhi-bi-tion will present Wang Qiang’s recent new paint-ings.
The night is ambigu-ous and pro-longed, and we can nev-er say with cer-tain-ty the exact time of its arrival and depar-ture. The night is also def-i-nite and irre-sistible, “the sun ris-es as usu-al,” and the night is nev-er absent. Night com-pounds time and space. Some light, tem-per-a-ture, sound, and even state of mind belong only to the night. Each night is unique. A night at sea, a night in the for-est and a night in the city are not the same. Per-haps only the one in the city is famil-iar to most con-tem-po-raries: the city as the phys-i-cal space where peo-ple live, night con-tains a spe-cif-ic psy-cho-log-i-cal time.
The ambi-gu-i-ty and exac-ti-tude of the night also char-ac-ter-ize Wang Qiang’s paint-ings. Wang Qiang’s works on can-vas, sit-u-at-ed between abstrac-tion and fig-u-ra-tion, ren-der a sense of famil-iar-i-ty and bewil-der-ing detach-ment. Such a sense comes from the not-too-dis-tant per-spec-tive in the pic-ture. It main-tains the ges-ture of look-ing, dic-tat-ed by the painter’s medi-at-ed dis-tance to his sub-ject, pre-serves cer-tain polite-ness. It also comes from the almost “out-of-focus” sub-tle vision pro-vid-ed by the painter’s homoge-nous tone, where the dis-cernible con-crete images as a whole while the blur-ry details offer the pic-tures a more dream-like qual-i-ty.
Wang Qiang depicts a series of scenes inside and out-side office build-ings after night-fall in Acquaint-ed with the Night, a series of works on can-vas with the epony-mous title as the exhi-bi-tion. In these most famil-iar scenes to every urban dweller, the sky is dim but not dark. The dark win-dow-panes seem uninvit-ing and pro-found, with many shift-ing and flow-ing details lurk-ing in the back-ground as if hint-ing at the dread-ful move-ment in the night. In con-trast, the inte-ri-or space of the office build-ing, which is gen-tly lit, seems to offer a touch of warmth and com-fort to the urban res-i-dents who have yet to repose. The fig-ures inside are in dif-fer-ent rooms, some look-ing out, some work-ing on their desks. How-ev-er, their faces may be indis-tinct for us to know what their exact feel-ings are at the moment, but the hands hold-ing the cig-a-rettes, or the slight-ly lean-ing pos-ture, led us in on their pre-oc-cu-pa-tion. The geo-met-ric lines shap-ing the frame and per-spec-tive remind one of the ubiq-ui-tous rules and restric-tions in the urban envi-ron-ment and add par-tial depth to the room’s inte-ri-or space, under-scor-ing the unfin-ished sto-ries and unex-plained moods inside the build-ing.
Fur-ther-more, the artist con-densed this state of Acquaint-ed with the Night into a tem-po-ral exis-tence beyond any spe-cif-ic moment in the night, which holis-ti-cal-ly per-vades his paint-ings, draw-ing on indi-vid-ual expe-ri-ences and the col-lec-tive uncon-scious. Even the works depict-ing sun-ny mid-day (Day-light), or an indis-tin-guish-able moment where details of dai-ly life are cap-tured by intense flash-es of light (Small Office, Wait-ing, etc.), the view-er would grasp the vibrat-ing res-o-nance of silence, restraint, cold-ness, and uneasi-ness one iden-ti-fies with the “night.”
Wang Qiang (b.1971, Bei-jing, Chi-na) received his BFA from the Print-mak-ing Depart-ment of the Cen-tral Acad-e-my of Fine Arts (CAFA) in 1997. In 2004, he obtained his Mas-ter’s degree (i.e. Meis-ter-schüler) at the Düs-sel-dorf Acad-e-my of Fine Arts. Recent solo exhi-bi-tions include Acquaint-ed with the Night, WHITE SPACE, Bei-jing, Chi-na (2021); The Poet-’s Win-ter, WHITE SPACE, Bei-jing, Chi-na (2017); Fremde Stadt, WHITE SPACE, Bei-jing, Chi-na (2015). Recent group exhi-bi-tion includes Inter-ven-tion and Rede-vel-op-ment: The Imagery Means of Con-tem-po-rary Art, Guang-dong Muse-um of Art, Guangzhou, Chi-na (2020); A White Space Odyssey, WHITE SPACE, Bei-jing, Chi-na (2019). Wang Qiang cur-rent-ly lives and works in Bei-jing.
Wang Qiang’s paint-ing skills were honed through abstrac-tion and min-i-mal-ism. He ratio-nal-ly con-structs mod-ern artis-tic notions with a unique indi-vid-ual style. In his works the col-ors of real life are bright-ened and puri-fied, com-pressed and sim-pli-fied. An cred-i-ble sense of live, on-the-spot pres-ence and a refresh-ing sense of trans-parence inject an incred-i-ble flow of air into the pic-ture, demon-strat-ing a sen-so-ry expe-ri-ence that’s even more bewil-der-ing than the past or the future.
Wang Qiang (b. 1971, Bei-jing, Chi-na) received his BFA from the Print-mak-ing Depart-ment of the Cen-tral Acad-e-my of Fine Arts (CAFA) in 1997. In 2004, he obtained his Mas-ter’s degree (i.e. Meis-ter-schüler) at the Düs-sel-dorf Acad-e-my of Fine Arts. Recent solo exhi-bi-tions include Acquaint-ed with the Night, WHITE SPACE, Bei-jing, Chi-na (2021); ThePoet-’s Win-ter, WHITE SPACE, Bei-jing, Chi-na (2017); Fremde Stadt, WHITE SPACE, Bei-jing, Chi-na (2015). Recent group exhi-bi-tion includes Inter-ven-tion and Rede-vel-op-ment: The Imagery Means of Con-tem-po-rary Art, Guang-dong Muse-um of Art, Guangzhou, Chi-na (2020); A White Space Odyssey, WHITE SPACE, Bei-jing, Chi-na (2019). Wang Qiang cur-rent-ly lives and works in Bei-jing.
白晝 Daytime 2019 丙烯亞麻布 acrylic on canvas 179.5x270cm 圖片由藝術(shù)家和空白空間提供 Courtesy the artist and WHITE SPACE
車站 Station 2021 丙烯亞麻布 acrylic on canvas 148x250cm 圖片由藝術(shù)家和空白空間提供 Courtesy the artist and WHITE SPACE
等待 Waiting 2021 丙烯亞麻布 acrylic on canvas 60x53 cm 圖片由藝術(shù)家和空白空間提供 Courtesy the artist and WHITE SPACE
東方明珠 Pearl of the Orient 2021 丙烯亞麻布 acrylic on canvas 186×180cm 圖片由藝術(shù)家和空白空間提供 Courtesy the artist and WHITE SPACE
南方車站 Southern Station 2020 丙烯亞麻布 acrylic on canvas 109×190cm 圖片由藝術(shù)家和空白空間提供 Courtesy the artist and WHITE SPACE
熟悉的夜| Acquainted with the Night 2019 丙烯亞麻布 acrylic on canvas 166×170cm 圖片由藝術(shù)家和空白空間提供 Courtesy the artist and WHITE SPACE
斜陽 Sunset 2021 丙烯亞麻布 acrylic on canvas 100x69 cm 圖片由藝術(shù)家和空白空間提供 Courtesy the artist and WHITE SPACE